Total Rt n00b - Little Overwhelmed, "Help!"

First off, may I say... lvl 14??? Wow, did you skip a lot of quests? I think I was level 19 when I decided to permanently leave Shang Island. Anyway, as to answer your question.

As I recall, I henched with Channelling skills for a while and I think Channelling was okay. May I state that I didn't know anything (no builds) about Channelling nor Communion skills. I was strickly a healer (like my monk) and a minion master (like my necro). I am a Rit/N, incase you are wondering.

I used the following Channelling build (not good, but it worked in PvE - I started at level 20).

Channelling: 12
Spawning: 13 (+1 head piece)
Restoration: 3

Essence Strike
Destruction
Channelled Strike
Gaze From Beyond
Spirit Boon Strike
Spirit Rift
Generous Was Tsungrai
Flesh Of My Flesh

When I decided to use Communion:

Blood Song
Pain
Dissonance
Disenchantment
Essence Strike
Painful Bond
Spirit To Flesh
Restoration

While I don't do much damage myself, I do increase the damage my party does with each spirit (expect for Restoration - that is for team healing).

Hope these two builds help - as they contain 0 elites.

lvl 14 is definitely not ready for the outside world yet. Even if you did all the attribute quests, you're still missing 10+15*5=85 attribute points and 20*6=120 max hp.

So...either start playing Restore...or don't find a group at all

I'd get rid of Spirit Boon Strike - it is only helping Destruction, which is the one spirit that you WANT to die.

Consider the following mix - I think you'll be much happier with your energy costs and casting times...

Destruction
Essence Strike
Spirit Burn
Spirit Rift (Vizunah and the rest of Kaineng is nice due to the cramped quarters full of enemies - this can be a devastating AoE spell)
Ancestor's Rage (since you're likely to have a warrior in the group, this is very nice AoE damage as well)
Generous Was Tsungrai
Flesh of My Flesh
Mesmer skill of your choice

You'll love the damage you'll be able to pull off, the energy you're able to gain via Essence, and the spiking capability to take out stragglers.

Quote:

JoeKnowMo pointed out this sweet build by arredondo in the mesmer forum. It's for Rt/Me.
http://forums.gwonline.net/showthread.php?t=402533
If you choose to be an Rt/Me you can try it out. It looks neat!

Quote:

This build got me through Vizunah and all the way to the Jade Sea:

http://gw.gamewikis.org/wiki/Rt/any_Continual_Channeler

It's a decent build if you can dump enough points into Channelling.

For channeling build...

16 channeling
13-15 restoration

max your channeling asap because this is the root of the build

Essence
Gaze
Burn
Rift
Destruction
Vengfull weapons/resilent weapon
Mend Body
Flesh of My Flesh/Preservation(when you get it)

nice staff with 20/20 and 2 Def mods +10 total
or
weapon an offhand that includes recharge time for chan spells

use the armor that is +15Al while activating

strategy of the build is rather strait forward let your hecnies or party agro first for pve and target ur target with passive attack lay down your spirit or imediately go for rift then lay your spirit

spam essence strike as much as possible for best energy management... if you hit it every single time it is recharged and dont attempt to spam rift to often and instead use your 3 single target spells as your main attacks only using rift as a crowd pleaser and boss spike.

you want to stay out of agro with this build and destruction spirit for this build is not intended to be used as dmg, instead it is a decent cost spirit with decent recharge as an enabler for your energy management and higher spike dmg from gaze and burn... spirit brun has a decent range and does use enemy spirits so it is a nice spell to spam as well especially against other ritualist as you are killing their spirit and doing damage to them as well...

im going to repeat myself... destruction is in this build primarily as an eneabler not as a means of attacking.... remember to constantly passive attack as it will add dmg in between your casting cast essence every time it is avaialbe (only when a spirit is up) and try to remember that your dmg comes from your spirit enhancing your attack spells so if your spirit is taken out or you wander to far off from it and are not able to recast, take the defensive untill you are back on track... destruction still has the nifty dmg aspect when it gets taken out this is mearly a bonus there are other builds that are way better at using spirits to do burst damage... completely different from a C-Rit

BTW all the skills in this build can be obtained as early as Kaineng with the exception of Preservation... it is an excelent easy to manage build that got me through the city and is used highly by starting rits in my guild to get them to Rit Lord/Vengfull Was/Attuned which is when your rit really gets exciting

I think every rit goes through a period of “just what can I do with this hoss?” The answer is obviously everything. Capable of healing (though differently) as effectually as most monks in the game, protecting all allies with powerful skills and doing some downright nasty damage too, the Ritualist is one of the most well rounded characters in the game.

But one thing that continues to be overlooked by other class players is the one thing that monks have been screaming for since the game’s inception.

The Ritualist is a support character with phenomenal energy management. Because of this, the ritualist is well suited to take on a role many overlook as boring or unimportant. They used to look at mesmers the same way.

The role is that of an offensive support caster; the very middle of the road character that elementalist/monks have so long dominated in GvG. With the proper skills, a rit can do damage, support monk prot and provide some of the most powerful team healing found anywhere in the game.

One example:
15 Spawning (rune and hat)
8 healing prayers
rest commune

Attuned was Sonkai
Doom
Heal Party
Displacement
Union
Bloodsong
Pain
Rez

I’ve run that build and variations of it in PvE and PvP. It provides solid support for my teammates over time, strong pressure DPS from the two offensive spirits and spike assist with Doom while my spirits recycle. Many experienced players will tell you that Heal Party is the single most effective group heal in the game at the moment and this build drops the cost of HP to a measly 7 mana. That’s spammable when you consider its cast and recycle. Spirits are not susceptible to casting interrupts, taking them off the radar of most mesmer interrupt builds, Migraine issues that other protection builds have issues with, etc. Most of my issues have come from edenial characters, seeking arrow rangers and KD touch skills.

While I know this isn’t exactly what the OP is asking for, I hope this post will lead you as you evolve with your character.

I mean, rits can do everything, right? So why pick just--one--thing?

Quote:

I know, but he already has several solid channeling builds posted above. So since everyone else has already posted what he needs to get through as a damage dealer I wanted to give him something that will see him in good stead towards the endgame.